Break Through
by fiery-keys101
Summary: A terrible incident leaves Lucy broken mentally and physically. Natsu, feeling guilty and responsible, has to try to break through her walls if he ever wants to see Lucy back to her old self ever again.
1. Chapter 1

Lucy groaned and slammed her face on top of the bar she was currently sitting at, covering her head with her arms.

"Lucy? Are you alright?" Mirajane asked, wiping down the bar countertop with a rag.

Lucy groaned again and looked up at Mira. "Natsu…" She gave up and shook her head, resuming her previous position.

"Ah. Natsu," the barmaid tutted knowingly.

"Yeah. He won't leave me alone. Job and job after _job_ …" Lucy's voice came out muffled from beneath her arms.

Natsu was insistent on taking more and more jobs lately, and even _more_ insistent that Lucy accompany him. Lucy wasn't sure why. What she _was_ sure of, however, was that she needed a break, and soon.

"Have you tried telling him to go without you?" Mira inquired.

"Yup. He won't have it. Mavis knows why," Lucy said, sighing and propping up her chin in her hand.

Just as Lucy finished her sentence, Natsu bounded over, with Happy close behind, job request clenched in his fist. "Lucy!" he called out loudly. "I found us a job!"

Lucy gave Mirajane a look as if to say _What did I tell you?_ and slowly swiveled in her chair to face her teammate. "Natsu, I've said this before. Can't you go without me just this once?" she asked tiredly, rubbing her eyes.

"But Luuucy, we can't go without you," Natsu whined childishly. "You have to come."

"Go with Gray and Erza or something. Honestly Natsu, I need a break."

"Go alone with frosty and the demon? Nope, no way," Natsu said stubbornly, crossing his arms and shaking his head.

"Okay, first of all, you wouldn't be _alone_ with them, you'd have Happy, and second of all, this is ridiculous. I'm exhausted. You've been dragging me on missions day after day for weeks. I'm so magically drained that even if I did go with you I wouldn't be any help anyway."

"Lucyyy… Please?" Natsu begged, giving her puppy dog eyes.

"No. Not this time Natsu. I'm putting my foot down. Wait a week, let me rest up, and we can go on another job then," Lucy said with an air of finality, turning back around to face Mira.

"Fine. You're no fun anyway," Natsu muttered under his breath before turning and skulking away.

"See? You got him off your case, didn't you?" Mira said with a smile.

"Well yeah, but… I feel kinda bad now. I don't _really_ mind going on jobs with him, but I'm just so drained." It was true. Lucy had deep, purple bruises under her eyes, and she looked paler than usual.

"Lucy, he'll get over it. Your health comes first," Mira said kindly. "Now let me make you some tea, and then you can hurry on home for some rest."

After drinking her tea and thanking Mira, Lucy slid off of her stool and began the short walk back to her apartment. Deciding to call out Plue for some company, she paused and pulled out his gate key. However, when she called out the words used to summon celestial spirits, nothing happened. She was too exhausted to summon little Plue, which really said something.

 _I definitely made the right choice_ , Lucy thought. If she wasn't able to summon a spirit that required such a minimal amount of magical energy, then how could she be expected to summon a spirit powerful enough to defend her?

Lucy replaced the key in her pouch and began walking again. When she reached her apartment, she kicked off her boots and collapsed on her bed, falling asleep as soon as her head hit her pillow.

Directly outside her window, perched on the sill, crouched a dark, shadowy figure. _Perfect… simply perfect_ , he thought as the first few drops of an incoming storm splattered against the ground. As a flash of lightning lit up the sky, the light illuminated a large, creepy smile.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys, it's Kay! Sorry for the wait! I've just got a lot on my plate recently, so finding time to write is a bit difficult. Hope you enjoy today's chapter!**

* * *

It had been weeks. Weeks and weeks and weeks since Lucy had disappeared. Search parties were sent out, posters were put up, and ideas were proposed, but slowly the guild was losing hope. They had nothing to guide them, absolutely nothing, and they were just blindly looking for any trail of their favorite blonde. Everybody was torn up about the celestial mage's disappearance, but nobody was more torn up than Natsu.

Natsu, when not out searching for his missing partner, sat in the guild hall planning his NEXT search. He refused to accept that Lucy was gone for good, and was adamant that everyone keep looking. He didn't know exactly what had happened, but he was sure that it was nothing good. He thought back to the night he had discovered Lucy was gone.

 _"Mira?" Natsu asked, approaching the bubbly barmaid. "Where's Lucy? She was here a while ago."_

 _"She left. She went home for some well-deserved rest. You've got her exhausted, the poor thing," Mirajane chastised._

 _"What? I'm sure she's overreacting. She's probably just so tired because she needs to lose some weight," Natsu snickered._

 _"Natsu, that isn't nice. You shouldn't say things like that," Mira said with a frown._

 _"I was just kiddin'..." he muttered. He really wasn't being honest when he made the comment about Lucy's weight. He didn't believe it. Quite the contrary. Natsu had carried Lucy on multiple occasions, and in his opinion, Lucy was actually pretty light. He didn't know why Happy always had such a difficult time carrying her._

 _"Still, don't make comments like that. Besides, you've been dragging her on so many missions that she can barely stand. You should really give her a break from all the work, Natsu," said Mira_

 _"Are the missions really takin' that big of a toll on her? I didn't think... I feel really bad," Natsu admitted, rubbing a hand through his spiky pink hair. "Maybe I should apologize or somethin'."_

 _"Good idea, Natsu. I'm sure Lucy will really appreciate that," Mira said, smiling brightly._

 _So Natsu turned and made his way to the front doors of the guild. Happy was busy with Charle and Lily, so he decided not to interrupt. Throwing open the doors, Natsu stepped out into the pelting rain and made his way to Lucy's apartment._

 _Natsu leapt nimbly onto the windowsill of Lucy's home and slid the already slightly ajar window the rest of the way open. He gracefully slipped into Lucy's bedroom, and instantly became rigid. He smelled...blood. And was that the scent of another person? The smell wasn't familiar to him._

 _"Lucy?" he called. He followed the scents to Lucy's bedside. He knelt and saw a small pool of blood. Lucy's blood, he realized upon closer inspection. "Lucy?!" he shouted. He quickly searched the rest of the apartment, concluding that Lucy, and the stranger for that matter, were absent._

 _No. No! How could this happen?! Where the hell was she?! Natsu ran back out into the rain and tried in vain to catch a scent trail, but alas, the water had washed away whatever tracks there may have been. He fell to his knees as the drops of rain slammed against the ground. He didn't have a trail to follow, and he had no idea where Lucy could've possibly been. He felt lost and helpless, which were two things the dragon slayer was not used to feeling._

 _"LUCY!"he bellowed at the sky. The only answer he received was the howling of the storm._

* * *

 **Oh no, what's going to happen to our beloved Lucy? Guess you'll just have to wait and see *evil grin*. Sorry this chapter was so short. I just felt that this was a good place to end the chapter, as it fits in better with the content I have planned for the next one. I'll try to get the next chappy out a lot sooner that this one, and I'll definitely make it longer than this one, too. Comments are always appreciated, as they motivate me to get** **these chapters written :). See you soon, my loves!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys, it's Kay! Hope you enjoy today's chapter!**

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Natsu slammed his fist onto the wooden table. "We can't just _stop looking_! Lucy is out there somewhere, I'm sure of it!"

"Natsu, we have no possible idea where she is! There have been no leads, and at this point we're just blindly searching. It has been _two months_ , Natsu. I don't know that there is much left we can do," spoke Erza firmly, yet her eyes were filled with sadness. She loved Lucy like a sister, but where was there left to look?

"No! We can't just abandon our _nakama_! Lucy _needs_ us!" Natsu shouted. "She could be hurt!"

"She could be _dead_!" Erza screamed back at him. The effect of her words was instantaneous. She clapped an armor-clad hand to her mouth, looking horrified. The guild fell silent.

Natsu, bangs covering his eyes, began to tremble. "Don't… don't you _dare_ say something like that," he ground out, voice as cold as steel. The he turned on his heel and sprinted out of the guild. Nobody said a word.

Dead… Lucy could be dead… The words echoed in his mind. No. She couldn't possibly be dead. Lucy was too strong. She was too strong to be dead…Right?

Dead… If Lucy was dead, it would be all because of him. Guilt flooded through him. This was all his fault. If it weren't for him being a selfish bastard and making her tag along on every mission they went on, she would still be here, laughing at his antics, Lucy Kicking him in the face for breaking into her apartment. If only he had let her be for a few days, like she wanted, this never would've happened. She could've defended herself, or at least have gotten a chance to escape. Natsu loathed himself for letting something like that happen.

Natsu stopped running once he had reached Lucy's apartment. He climbed through her window and into her bedroom. He had been paying her rent for the last few months. If he didn't, where would Lucy stay if she came back? _When_ she came back, Natsu amended. He made his way over to Lucy's bed, where he had been sleeping since Lucy's disappearance, and laid on top of the covers. He rolled over onto his stomach and pressed his face into one of her pillows. He inhaled deeply, trying to catch a hint of Lucy's scent. The smell that was distinguishably Lucy's was faded, almost completely gone. Natsu didn't know what he would do once the scent faded completely. It was one of the best things Natsu had ever smelled, a mix between honeysuckle and vanilla. Laying on Lucy's bed with her fragrance tickling his nose, he was lulled into a peaceful sleep.

* * *

"Natsu! Wake up, Natsu! Natsu!" Natsu awoke to Happy calling his name, perched on the back of his head.

"What, Happy?" Natsu grunted, annoyed to be woken from his slumber.

"Get up! It's about Lucy!" Happy cried. "Levy's found a lead!"

At that Natsu sat up so fast that Happy, who was on Natsu's head, went flying across the room. "What?! What's the lead?!" Natsu bellowed.

Happy, who was recovering from being launched through the air, rubbed his head and grumbled tearfully, "I don't know, she just told me to get you before she said what it was." He climbed back onto the bed. "That hurt, Natsu," he whined.

Natsu ignored him. "C'mon Happy, we need to get to the guild," he said, determined.

"Aye," trilled Happy enthusiastically, fully healed from his unexpected trip across the room, as he grew his wings, grabbed the back of Natsu's jacket, and flew to the guild. Happy released his hold on Natsu when they reached the front doors of the guild.

Bursting through the large double doors, he yelled, " _Levy! What's happenin'?! What did you find?!_ "

Levy was sitting at a round wooden table with wrinkled newspapers in front of her, surrounded by the rest of the guild. Natsu pushed his way through the crowd of his guildmates until he was standing directly across the table from Levy.

"Spill it, Levy," said Natsu urgently.

"Okay, now that everyone is here…" Levy started. "I was searching through some newspapers to see if I could find any patterns in the disappearances in Magnolia and other surrounding cities. I was looking through some newspapers from a few weeks ago, and I kept reading about various disappearances in and around Magnolia, specifically the disappearances of girls. I'm not sure if this is the guy that kidnapped Lucy, but I think it'd be worth a shot just to look into it."

Levy unfolded one of the newspapers in front of her. "Let's see… Here. It says his name is Aito Nadir. The most recent of his kidnappings was about two weeks ago, not far from here, in fact. It seems he's very difficult to catch."

Natsu reached across the table and slid one of the newspapers to him. "So where should we start looking?"

"Well, many of the disappearances have occurred around the same area: the East Forest. I think starting the search around there would be the best bet," replied Levy.

Master Makarov jumped onto the tabletop. "Alright, my children!" he rumbled. "I don't know if this will be the search that brings Lucy home, but we can damn well try!" Various shouts of agreement were heard. "Natsu! Erza! Wendy! Gray! Happy! Go and do your best to bring our family _back_!"

At this the cheers in the guild exploded. They finally had some sort of lead, an idea of where to look. It may not have been the man who took their Lucy, but after a long time, they finally had a plan of action.

* * *

 **Alright guys, there you go. They finally have a trail to follow! As promised, this chapter was out waaay earlier than my last one. I'll try not to keep you guys waiting forever for the next update. Anyways...**

 **Anonymous Person: Ah, yeah, I see where you're coming from, but it wouldn't be as interesting or suspenseful without the cliffhangers, in my opinion at least.**

 **Fanficaddict14: Aw! Thank you so much! That really means a lot :)**

 **As per usual, comments are always appreciated. See you next time, my loves!**


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